Jan 23 Happy Chinese New Year--Hong Kong

In lieu of the fabulous year of the Dragon, I have finally finished writing my post on Hong Kong. Here I leave you with my story of the most amazing 8 days in China....If you can make it to Hong Kong in your lifetime, you should...what an awesome city!

source: Traveling Latina

You always hear
stories, of places people have been to and things they have seen and done while
there. Then you see movies that show skylines of cities you can just only dream
of going. Until one day you get the chance to actually go to one of those
cities and see all of the bright lights shining off of each tower. That was my
first impression of Hong Kong: very modern, bright lights everywhere, tall buildings, a
little chilly, some language barriers, but all in all an amazing city.

source: Traveling Latina

For the longest time I
had been wanting to visit Hong Kong and finally thanks to the study abroad program I participated in (my third one by the way!), I got the chance to experience one of the most modern, cool, hip cities in
Asia. It was amazing to get into the famous little red cabs and head towards
our hotel and see these high rises just glow away with their bright lights and
variety of colors. It felt like I was in a dream to see the skyline of what really is a
small island compared to the rest of China. It was just shocking to see how
these sky rises were real, they existed, they weren’t just on TV, movies or
pictures, they were there and people worked or lived in them. The Hong Kong
skyline took my breath away; literally, after I walked into a pole from
admiring it so much! (side note: I officially
have a dent on the side of my left cheek from that mini accident). The skyline
was just one of the many things I loved about Hong Kong.

source: Traveling Latina

Hong Kong is definitely
a melting pot city with the variety of cultures that live there. I believe this
is thanks to the British invasion since they brought people from India,
Australia, Singapore, etc. I noticed this detail through the variety of food
options that the island offered and the different languages that I heard spoken
as I walked through the Central area of Hong Kong. Even though the British Empire has been gone
for more than 10 years now, the local government and its people have still kept
many of the elements from that time era. It can be seen through the bilingual traffic
signs to help those English speaking residents and tourist, to the fast paced lifestyle
similar to London or New York City, everyone either speaks English fluently or
have a good grasp of the language and those that are not Chinese know some of
the key words in Mandarin that helps them move around slightly easier. The
interesting part is that although you would think there should not be a
language barrier there, I at times felt like there was one especially when
providing directions to cab drivers and even at some of our business meetings, some of
us had to rephrase our question so that the presenters could better grasp what
we were trying to say.

source: Traveling Latina

Language barriers or
not, one of my favorite things to do when I travel is to enjoy the local food.
Although I did not get the chance to have the street food, which according to
celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain “Hong
Kong has some of the best street food in China”, I did have some great
meals in Hong Kong. Our first family style meal which was a mix of Thai and
Malay, I felt like I was in heaven since the plane food did not do much for my palate,
do not get me wrong it was great (compared to other airlines) but not good
enough for a 16 hour flight. After that meal there were two more that I could
not stop thinking about: Nepalese food and Rainbow. Our second night on the
island, a few of us went to SoHo and checked out a Nepalese restaurant. It was
the first time for all of us trying this type of food and it was a great experience.
A lot of the dishes were curry based which we were all familiar but many of the
spices they used were different from what we had already tried in Hong Kong and
back at home. The blend of flavors and the mountain feel environment that the
restaurant provided made me feel like I was in another country. Thanks to that
dining experience, I now added another location to my travel wish list, Nepal.

source: Traveling Latina

Another meal that I
will never forget from our Hong Kong trip is when we all packed up our evening
wear, with a Carlsberg or two at hand, and headed to Lamma Island for one of
the best seafood restaurants in the Hong Kong area, Rainbow Seafood. For
someone like me that enjoys seafood dishes at any time of the day, it was amazing
to see tanks filled with live lobsters, fish of many colors and all manner of
sea creatures clambering over one another in a vain attempt to escape the chef’s
hands and into my empty belly! My favorite dish was by far the lobster tails
and crabs with fresh garlic and lime juice, just thinking about it makes my
mouth watery it was so deliciously good. It is no wonder why this restaurant is
a favorite by locals and expats.

source: Traveling Latina

One of the things that Hong Kong lacks in, is the quality of customer service. I guess that is
what happens when you become a mini New York City, it is OK to be rude to
tourist or not help them out at all. There were several times that we got slightly
lost or needed to ask front desk to clarify something for us and it just seemed
like the people we contacted with were too busy or in a rush to talk to us.
That is one of the things I must say turns me off from visiting such large
cities like Hong Kong, NYC or even L.A., people think they are better than the
tourists and are not friendly to stop and help them out.

source: Traveling Latina

Although the customer
service was poor for my standards, the hotel we stayed at in Hong Kong was clean
and was in a great location. Our room had an amazing view of the skyline which I
loved admiring every night we went to bed and the breakfast was descent enough
for what it was worth. The biggest highlight of the hotel is definitely the location!
Everywhere we wanted to go to was easily accessible either via foot, train, bus,
ferry or cab. In fact, that is by far the most attractive trait Hong Kong has,
their public transportation system was amazing. And if you really wanted to you
could literally walk everywhere. I got to see so many different things the days
that we had “free time” because I just walked everywhere or took the train for
those locations that were slightly far to walk to.

Source: Traveling Latina

On a final note about
Hong Kong, although they have a lot of public transportation options it was sad
to see how strong the pollution levels were there. The day we went to Avenue of
Stars in Kowloon is when I noticed the thick brownish gray, pollution cloud
lingering over Victoria Harbour and through the Hong Kong high rises. In fact,
while we were there, an article was published by asiancorrespondent.com which disclosed
that Central’s road is by far one of the most polluted areas in Hong Kong with “fine particles in the air that can penetrate
deep into a human respiratory system and may cause severe health risks”.This information is
slightly disturbing especially coming from such a modern city that should
enforce environmental safety practices that forces their residents to take more
public transportation, limit the cars that are sold per year, etc. Small things
like that ones I just listed could definitely help bring the pollution levels
down in Hong Kong bay area and avoid health-risks to their residents and
tourist.

source: Traveling Latina

With its great food,
amazing skyline, "rude" people, great public transportation and some pollution
particles going into your lungs every time you breathe, is what makes Hong Kong
one of the best cities in Asia. I will definitely have to come back because I felt
like the city had so much to offer and I wasn't able to do everything it had.